Blues Trust
Birmingham City Supporters Trust - Independent : Democratic : Representative
Blues Trust
Birmingham City Supporters Trust - Independent : Democratic : Representative
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Blues Trust
Birmingham City Supporters Trust - Independent : Democratic : Representative
BCFC: Blues 2023/24 Accounts – Moving In The Right Direction
Blues accounts for last season were released last week. The key headlines are that the club increased income, made a reduced loss and invested significantly in infrastructure.
Blues set up in UK is that they have a holding company (Birmingham City Limited) and then the football club (Birmingham City Football Club Limited). Both these companies release their accounts at the same time, and the profit and loss (P&L) numbers are very similar.
The figures in this article are for the football club, unless otherwise stated, and comparisons are provided for the last 5 years to provide some context.
Let’s start with revenue.
NB. On mobile devices, the following tables can be scrolled horizontally.
Revenue – matchday income and commercial revenue are significantly up
| Revenue (£m) | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
| Match Day | 6.1 | 3.7 | 4.2 | 0.0 | 4.6 |
| Broadcasting | 9.7 | 9.1 | 8.4 | 9.3 | 8.8 |
| Commercial | 12.9 | 6.2 | 5.0 | 3.8 | 9.1 |
| Turnover | 28.7 | 19.0 | 17.6 | 13.1 | 22.5 |
| Other income | 0.8 | 0.8 | 4.0 | 1.8 | 1.5 |
Matchday revenue was 65% up on the 2022/23 season, reflecting increased ticket prices, a wider range of matchday offerings and increased crowds (which were up 26%). Commercial income more than doubled reflecting the significant transformation that Knighthead have introduced with more entertainment, a greater range of merchandise, new sponsorships, ground naming rights and so on.
In totality, turnover was up 51% and we can expect that trend to continue for the current season, even allowing for the reduction of broadcasting income in League One.
Operating Costs – wages as a percentage of turnover reduced although total costs were up
| Operating costs £m | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
| Employment costs | (33.7) | (27.6) | (31.1) | (30.9) | (32.4) |
| Other Expenses | (18.0) | (14.0) | (9.7) | (6.6) | (10.9) |
| Depreciation | (2.6) | (1.2) | (1.4) | (1.2) | (1.3) |
| Player Amortisation | (4.4) | (3.5) | (6.3) | (7.2) | (8.3) |
| Total Op cost | (58.7) | (46.3) | (48.5) | (46.0) | (53.0) |
| Wages/turnover (%) | 117% | 145% | 177% | 236% | 144% |
Blues total wage bill last season was £33.7m, 22% up on the previous season. But with increased turnover the wages to turnover ratio was down to 117%, the lowest ratio since 2015/16, and an indication that the wage bill is moving towards a more sustainable position.
Player amortisation, which spreads transfer fees paid over the length of a player’s contract, was also up highlighting that Blues were becoming more of a spending club again.
Increased infrastructure spend is recognised through increased depreciation.
Other overheads were up so the total operating cost costs increased 27%.
Operating Profit – Blues still made a loss on operations
Putting these together gave an operating loss of £29.2m, 10% worse than the previous season.
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |
| Operating Profit/loss (£m) | (29.2) | (26.5) | (26.9) | (31.0) | (29.0) |
Player Transfers – significant player sales profits
Blues spent modestly in the transfer market with purchases of £5.6m. However, sales were worth £17.2m to the club with the overall profit on player sales a healthy £15.4m. This likely includes some sell on fees for Jude Bellingham’s move to Real Madrid. A note in the accounts also states that for the current season the net transfer spend was £21m , highlighting the owners’ serious investment in the playing side of the club. This won’t show up until next year’s accounts and will be amortised over several years.
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |
| Profit on player sales (£m) | 15.4 | 2.1 | 3.1 | 26.5 | 11.5 |
Profit and loss – Blues made a reduced loss last season
Putting the revenue and costs together gives the following total profit and loss:
| P&L (£m) | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
| Profit before tax | (16.1) | (25.4) | (24.8) | (5.5) | (18.4) |
Blues recorded on overall pre-tax loss of £16.1m, a 37% improvement on the previous year.
Profitability and Sustainability (P&S)
Blues accounts don’t show P&S figures. In short, for Championship clubs, allowable losses across 3 years should not exceed £39m. Allowable losses exclude items such as money spent on youth development, depreciation or the women’s team. Adjustments for Covid-19 are also taken into account. Blues total pre-tax losses over the last 3 years were £66.2m before any exclusions for the aforementioned items.
Blues would need exclusions of £27.2m to make the threshold. Ipswich Town, in their recent accounts, did publish their P&S figures which showed that they had £18.8m exclusions over a 3 year period which is not that far away from the figure Blues would need. Given the professionalism of the new ownership we can be confident that Blues did indeed meet the P&S threshold, albeit they may have tried to use the maximum losses available.
Keeping the club going in future
The accounts show that Knighthead estimated that £60m would be needed to keep the club going from July 2024 to December 2025, and that they are prepared to continue funding the club.
With the ongoing overhaul of the club and remarkable success that has been enjoyed so far this season, it is important to remind ourselves that these accounts are for the previous season which marked the start of the new ownership regime. But there is every reason to take encouragement from the figures and to have even more confidence that, at last, the club is very definitely moving in the right direction.
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Thank you for a superb summary done in easy to read language for us not in the accounting business.
‘Given the professionalism of the new ownership ……’
I agree that the new ownership has shown a professionalism not seen at Blues for many a year, if ever, and it is indeed hoped that under its stewardship, the Club has met the P&S threshold demanded by the EFL. The only slight cloud on the horizon regarding this aspect, is the ambiguous explanation in the departure of its previous CEO Garry Cook, with the only reason given, that he had stepped down for personal reasons. I just hope there is nothing more in Garry leaving than his own personal reasons, and that it was truly free of anything relating to his tenure at Blues. However, the Club could have no better replacement than Jeremy Dale, so the loss of Garry Cook has been more than compensated.
Let us all hope that the dark days of the 12 years before the arrival of Tom Wagner et al and Knighthead, are well and truly over forever and will never see the light of day again, and will, in the end, just be consigned to a mere footnote in the history of Birmingham City F.C.
KRO